Old House c. late 1920s - 1930s

Daniel Garber made this drawing of an old house with graphite on paper. Look at how those marks build up. You can almost see him shifting and changing his mind as he lays down lines. It’s like watching a thought take shape. I wonder what Garber was thinking about while he was making this. Was he interested in the details of the house, or in capturing a mood? See how the lines feel light in some places, almost like a memory, and darker in others, really anchoring the image. Notice how the trees in the background are created with lots of little scribbles – each one alive with energy. When I see that kind of mark-making, I feel like I’m part of a big conversation happening across time. It's like Garber is chatting with other artists, all trying to figure out how to show what they see and feel. Painting is an embodied expression that embraces ambiguity, so it's up to us to decide what it means.